It is always in times of greatest stress that we realise what the most important things in our lives and our communities are. So it has been this past week in Canterbury, where the grocers have stepped up to deliver their invaluable service to a community staggering under persistent shakes and ongoing turbulence. It may be fashionable in food circles to ridicule supermarkets, but when Christchurch needed essential supplies it was the supermarkets that made every attempt to open in the face of a major earthquake and supply what was needed.
I have fielded numerous stories about friends and family rolling up their sleeves to get shop doors open again after entire stocks were dumped on concrete floors by the 7.1 quake that hit last Saturday morning. By the end of Saturday, as most people were struggling to cope with their own domestic situations, grocers were doing what they do best, serving their public to the point where most had run out of bottled water and there were still queues outside their doors.
This is a good time for all grocers in New Zealand to watch Canterbury and feel proud of their profession. A moment of reflection, too, on the amazing value grocers provide to their communities, and maybe an opportunity to consider being better at the task. More professional, more concerned with customer safety and health, and with the pivotal role you and your stores play in the daily lives on New Zealanders.
Cynics will say that grocery is pure business, and the current fashion with industrialisation that has controlled the grocery trade for two generations has undermined its community persona. It should be remembered that the driving force behind the development of supermarkets as we now find them is price, and there is no more efficient way to drive down grocery prices than to industrialise manufacture, distribution and retail to achieve this end.
This has not removed the essential service nature of grocery, nor the imperatives imposed on grocers’ professionalism, not least in fair trading and adequate supply. It is only when those supply systems are dislocated, as in Canterbury right now, that we see how important they are.
Whatever the next trend in grocery shopping may be, those essential functions of the grocer will continue to exist – at least as long as people eat and drink.
Napoleon thought he was demeaning the English when he called them a ‘nation of shopkeepers’. Had he known how serious shopkeepers are about their community, he might have been less dismissive of the British Army. Waterloo could have had a different outcome.
Time for a special vote of thanks to the grocers. Well done – keep up the good work. Be proud. Kia kaha.
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